till death do us part
by Kuroshi44
Summary: Ciel considers what Elizabeth means to him as he gets ready to say good-bye. Will be later chapters from Elizabeth's and Sebastian's point of view.
1. Ciel

**summary: Ciel considering what Lizzy means to him**

'Till death do us part.'

The words rang in Ciel's head over and over again as he stared at the blank piece of paper before him.

What should he write?

As long as Ciel could remember he had known that one day he would marry Lizzy, as a child he had not fully understood what that would mean. All he cared about was that she was the one he liked and he looked forward to the time when they would be inseparable. Everything was simple when you were little, some would say he still was.

But he was no longer a child, that month in the cage had changed that.

'Till death do us part' indeed, it was the vow he was supposed to say in just a couple of months' time. The only problem was he had already died, so they had already parted.

He liked Lizzy, loved her even, he hated it when she was upset though it seemed he could only make her cry. He wanted to protect her even though she was so much stronger than him. He only wanted to see her smiling face.

She was what mattered most to him, but he loved her as family, as the older brother she already had, he could no longer love her in that uncomplicated manner of a child that does not understand the world.

Some people thought that his closeness with Sebastian meant that the servant had replaced Elizabeth in that space in the heart reserved for lovers, but that was not it. In the past he had been tempted to take the older, more experienced monster to bed, but that was merely curiosity, nothing near the emotion he had seen expressed between his parents.

'Till death do us part.'

The simple truth was that he was no longer in possession of the ability to feel that way again.

He had realised this the first time she hugged him after that month had ended. Her fierce loyalty and relief had radiated into him, and he had felt a kind of release to know that he really was back with her. But that was all. The ocean of love he had had reached out and found that it could not reach her, that in fact it was missing altogether, drained sometime when he was locked up.

That part of his heart was dead and gone, berried in an unmarked grave where none could find it.

He was dead and they were parted, all that was left of the boy Elizabeth had loved was an echo, a shadow, a ghost.

She deserved better than to marry a ghost.

He loved her, but he could no longer fall in love, no longer give himself over entirely to another person.

He loved her, so he must give her up.

'My lord, the preparations are finished.' Sebastian's quiet voice broke in to the small boy's quiet thoughts.

Ciel looked once more at the blank page. How do you say good bye when you have only just said hello? How do you leave someone when it feels like they have only just arrived?

How do tell someone you love them, but you are not in love with them?

Ghosts must learn to let go and move on, the living must learn the same.

'Till death do us part,' he was dead, now they must say good bye, now he must tell her the truth.

'I am sorry Elizabeth,' with that he took the pen and began to write.


	2. Elizabeth

**An: much longer than the last chapter, Lizzy had a lot more to say than good bye**

Elizabeth clutched the note to her chest like a life line. In some ways, that was what it was as she began to lose her bearings in the stormy ocean her life had become, this one letter became the buoy to keep her head afloat.

Her Ciel, her darling Ciel, wanted to talk to her about the wedding. She was not as stupid as people took her for, she had good instincts and they were screaming at her that something was not right.

The carriage rattled around her and she thought back to the first time she had made this journey after the fire and funerals. When she had heard that Ciel was alive she had left for the ruins of his mansion at top speed, much as she was doing now.

As children they had been together always, and they had known they would be together always, for now and forever, till death do us part. She had known what marriage meant from a young age, long before Ciel, and she had race towards it arms outstretched, heedless of the path she tread.

And then he had died.

Well she had thought he had, though no body was found that was Ciel's size, the state of his parents had led to the belief that the bones were burnt to ashes so small they would never be found, after all half of his parents never had been.

She remembered that day well, arriving with everyone else to celebrate his tenth birthday, seeing the horror on their faces that made her own reality worse. Her father had had to restrain her to keep her from following Ciel into the flames.

She thought about the month that followed. In the letter that was clutched to her chest she had read that Ciel would finally tell her about what had happened, about the month in which he was missing. She already had a relatively good idea as to what that was, absolute hell.

It had been hell for her as well.

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'You want to call the wedding off?' Elizabeth stared at the only boy she would ever love with complete horror. Even if she had expected something similar hearing the words in his voice coming from his mouth was all her worst nightmares come to life.

'Sebastian has seen to it that you will get ownership of all my possessions. You won't have to worry about a new marriage unless you want to. It's already been organised.' His calm expression drove daggers through her heart, the idea that the matter was already settled.

'Wait a minute Ciel, why would whether we are married or not matter if you are giving me everything anyway? And either way I only get your possessions after you die, unless you're planning to live on the street?' That look, that look when she said 'die,' if her heart had been stabbed before it was shattering now.

'No, no it can't be, tell me I'm mistaken Ciel, tell me.'

'I cannot, I will not lie to you.' The look in his eyes as he ripped her life to shreds, the calm blue like an undisturbed sky, so peaceful compared with the turmoil he had wreaked on her existence.

'So you want to call off the wedding? To let me go and tell me that I get everything anyway so don't worry? I don't want the mansion Ciel, I want you! I don't care if you're dying I still love you!' her heart was breaking, tearing, shredding to pieces. With each second she thought surely, surely there was nothing left to be shattered, and with each second a new level of pain proved her wrong.

'Elizabeth, I won't live to see the wedding. I don't have a couple of months, I have days. Even you cannot organise something within that time.' How was he still so calm?

'Why? Why only tell me now that we don't have time?'

'Because I thought I had time, I didn't realise how fast it was going until it was already too late.'

They stared at each other across his desk, the silence eating away at their hearts though both hid it well.

'Tell me Ciel.'

'Tell you what?'

'Tell me everything.'

'That's a little too broad.'

'Tell me everything you have been hiding since the fire. Tell me about the month you were missing, tell me about your work for the queen, tell me why you're dying, tell me every secret you have ever hidden from me and the truth to every lie you've told me.' Her voice was calm, she had no idea how she was so steady. She had been mistaken, his eyes were not the sky, they were the ocean, the ocean that was pulling her under and drowning her.

'That will take a long time, and time is not something I have a lot of.'

'Then use what is left to help me understand. In your letter you said you loved me, if that was true then do this for me.' The quiet possibly only lasted for a few seconds, but those seconds where ones in which she could not breathe.

'I do love you,' Ciel looked out the window and sighed. 'Alright, I will tell you everything as a parting gift.'

The tears began to pour down her face in a torrent at those words; they blurred her vision and obscured his pain that shone out to her in her grief. His arms wrapped around her but the relief they brought was small and fragile, the knowledge that he was alive was drowned out by the knowledge that soon he would not be.

Standing like that he told her the story, the truth and every other thing she wanted to know. Whispering in her ear he gave her the information, the key for her to move on.

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The tears did not stop the entire trip home, she did not eat dinner and she cried herself to sleep. She felt numb in the back lash from the emotional storm of the afternoon. Vaguely she was aware of her brother threatening Ciel, of her parents trying to calm him or agreeing to help him alternately.

She did not care.

She loved him, she could not have him, and soon he would be gone from her life forever. She would not even see him when she died, there would be no reunion in heaven as so many people wished for and had the possibility of receiving.

She hated Sebastian for what he had done, but at the same time she was grateful.

She hated for him taking Ciel from her, hated him for claiming her love in a way she never could. She hated him for taking advantage of a boy that had no other option, for twisting her wonderful love into something she barely recognized.

She was grateful to him for giving her a second chance, for giving her those few extra years with the ghost she loved. She was grateful that he had spared her Ciel more pain than he had already endured, that he had given to him the things she never could.

She hated Sebastian, but was also grateful. She loved Ciel, but at the moment she hated him. She could no longer keep track of her emotions.

She heard her parents' leave for Ciel's, no, her mansion. She wondered if he would still be alive when they arrived.

She looked at the thing she had clutched in her hand since she had fled crying form the house. It was Ciel's family ring, proof that she was to gain all his property and the only reminder she would have of him.

She slept with the ring clutched in her the morning she threaded it onto a chain that she would forever wear around her neck.

He would be her Ciel, he would remain her love and child hood friend, his memory would be with her always.

And she would move on with her life.

'Till death do us part.'

It had not been said in a church, but it had come to pass. Death had had it's way, now they must move on, the living and the dead, never to join again but to always remain connected.

She would use the strength he had given her to make him proud, so he would not worry, so he could rest in peace.


	3. Sebastian

**An: extremely hard to write from Sebastian, he is incredibly tight lipped, and more sentimental than people give him credit for.**

Sebastian watched the events unfold before him with a strange combination of amusement, annoyance and sadness. He was amused at humans, annoyed at the interlude before he could claim his prize, and a little sad at the pain the goodbye was giving the two people in front of him.

Over the long years in his service to his young master he had learnt something of human emotions, even gained the ability to feel them to some extent though it was embarrassing to admit it. He could understand the situation that was unfolding around him, including his own hand in the matter.

The contract was complete, the revenge had been carried out and it was time for the prize to be claimed. He agreed with his lord that the end had rather snuck up on him, even he had expected it to last long enough for the marriage ceremony.

He had wanted to waste no time in claiming the boy's soul, however the wish that remained - though unspoken – was something he could give his master. He would never say it out loud, but he had a soft spot for this particular contractor.

The matters were settled with Her Majesty. Elizabeth would inherit all the Phantomhive property as a last gift to a subject who had served her well. All the loose ends were being tied up in preparation for the last goodbye.

'Till death do us part,' was that the line it was supposed to end with? He found that rather amusing, his master had been dead to begin with.

He did not hate Lady Elizabeth; in some respects he was even grateful to her – though she could be annoying. She only cared about his contractor, only wished to make him happy; her influence had added another dynamic to the delectable soul he could finally claim as his.

He would not eat it though; he could no longer do that.

Demons are incapable of love, much in the same way as his young master, however they are capable of great respect if there was a being that deserved it. His master had earned his.

When the revenge had been completed, the young earl had not begged for his life or an extension of the contract, as so many of his previous contractors had been known to do. Instead he had simply smiled and waited for Sebastian to end it. The contract allowed the demon a glimpse into the deepest desires of the human counterpart. Sebastian could hear his lord's desire to properly say good bye to Lady Elizabeth. Despite this the boy never asked for the extension, only waited to fulfil his end of the bargain.

How could he not grant such a noble soul its last wish?

This soul was too perfect to waste on a rushed meal. He would preserve the soul exactly as it was; maybe have it displayed in his own throne room for his aesthetic pleasure.

And maybe, just maybe, when Elizabeth died he would grant her her wish of reunion. It would not be in heaven, but even hell could be pleasant depending on the company.

'Till death do us part,' his master was already dead and, in a matter of speaking, so was he. Death had no power to separate a human and a demon contract, but maybe a demon had the power to use death to reunite this young couple? After all he did respect this fine soul, and he did harbour a small amount of gratitude for the other.

Well, he need not decide right now. Death meant nothing to him and nor did time, he had years to come to a decision.

Finally the young couple finished their goodbyes and Elizabeth fled from the pain of the parting.

Now it was time.

Carefully he gathered his master - no, the contract was finished - his Ciel into his arms. Gently, carefully so as not to damage it, he removed the much awaited soul from the fragile container that had harboured it.

Now he could return home with his prize intact. He would use the ring Elizabeth now carried to keep an eye on her, after all he was nothing if not a collector and it would be a shame to only have half the set.

'Till death do us part,' it was not said in front of God but a demon would have to do. He loved to show those reapers that sometimes 'death' was not so powerful as to destroy something as precious as love.


End file.
